First I want to state that I am a democrat and supporter of Barack Obama but I am also a tax attorney and accountant and I cannot allow the fallacious arguments about taxes and tax rates that people pay go unanswered. Do the rich such as Mitt Romney pay substantially less than the average working guy whose only income is a salary? The answer is no. Why? Because the people in opposition to Romney and the Republicans are calculating his tax rate by dividing the taxes that were paid by the adjusted gross income which does not include itemized deductions or the standard deduction and any exemptions for family members. In comparison to this calculation I have no idea what criteria the democrats are using to say that this rich guy is paying a lower rate than their secretary because a person with a salary of 50,000 dollars a year with a spouse and two children and no other deductions except the standard deduction, child tax credit, and the four exemptions that he can take only pays an effective rate (tax paid or due divided by adjusted gross income) of 3%. Under the same set of circumstances a person with a salary of 100,000 pays 9.4% in taxes and a person with a salary of 150,000 pays 15.4% in taxes and a person with a salary of 200,000 pays 18.7%.
One can argue that all of these rates are exceedingly low and an argument can and should be made that all of the Bush tax cuts should expire so that everyone, including low income earners should contribute more in federal income taxes. But to say that Romney is not paying his fair share and is paying less than the average taxpayer is completely false. To put this in perspective, 15% of taxpayers earn over 100,000 dollars a year and only 5% earn more than 150,000 a year so Romney is paying a higher rate of tax than more than 90% of taxpayers.
What the democrats are doing here is not spin, it is an outright lie and they should be called on it. I’m surprised that they haven’t been shown the error of their ways before this.